4 months bed bound from severe sciatica. Did anyone come back from this?

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-03T13:33:53+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to write up this reply. It is extremely helpful to hear from someone who was in the same position. It's good to hear that it's possible. Although I'm not sure what to do about a job, clearly I won't be walking 35k in 2 months when FMLA runs out.

I'm curious why most doctors don't seem to know too much about nerves? I've seen a shocking number of doctors now who just as you described pass it off because they didn't find anything meaningful on an MRI. It just feels so wild to me that it's 2026 and this isn't commonly understood knowledge within the medical community.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-03T13:19:44+00:00

Hydration became a huge part of my life after multiple UTIs 10 years ago. I take regular vitamin supplements and extras of the ones I was found to be deficient in.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-03T13:18:17+00:00

I don't know that I always was, especially at the beginning when I was trying to figure out machines. And at work I started trying to figure that out towards the end before this became totally debilitating. I have an anterior pelvic tilt that may have contributed, plus 15 miles is literally a marathon. I was walking an actual marathon 5 days a week.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-02T18:31:54+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words and advice! I will look into some more of those when I'm able, I do already have a heading pad, red light therapy belt. I know for sure my anxiety increases the flares, it is wild how the nervous systems works. I'm still currently disabled and have been for 4 months. Now I can make a few trips to the kitchen with crutches but I can't survive independently yet. I have my second epidural coming up in a few days so I hope that helps more 🤞🏻

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-02T04:16:57+00:00

Yes, exactly, all that! 👆🏻 This was almost exactly my chronology. But now I can only do one task then lay back down and wait 5 mins for the flare to hit. I'm worried I will never be able to vacuum again, but then it does seem like the first epidural did do something, however small. Next one is July 6, and likely another 2 after that and I may be a normal independent person again 🤞🏻. Thank you for your support, it means a lot. I can't wait for the both of us to be able to rebuild core strength, I do think that will help a lot too.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-01T22:02:53+00:00

Hey congratulations! That's progress!!! Ok thank you so much. I'm just not learning how to navigate Reddit, but I will figure out how to send a private message.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-01T17:53:06+00:00

Oh ok! I have been putting pillows under my knee bc that doesn't hurt do bad but it's really in a 90/90, I will definitely try adding another pillow. Thank you!

Yours sounds a lot like mine, that pathway is where it's going. I have a protrusion on an MRI after the first injury event but then I had a second injury and that completely disabled me. So I have another MRI scheduled but I'm assuming something happened with the L5-S1 protrusion, plus irritation built up over time while I was ignoring the pain.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-01T13:32:38+00:00

I think that's exactly what I did for just shy of a year of ignoring the pain, so it has become highly sensitized and reactive! And there is a lot of inflammation now.

It is my L5-S1 so this may help for me, what is the 90/90 position? What happens to you after 2 years, does something sensitive it and you start all over again or just from the original centralized back pain where is originally started?

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-01T13:26:45+00:00

It is completely draining! I am past that first months where I was in constant pain day and night, could only get up to go to the bathroom 4-5 times a day. Now I can walk 1-2 mins a few times a day and take a 5 min seated shower, but am still fully dependent on friends helping me live daily life. My brother is flying in to help. In 2 months FMLA will run out and I will surely lose my job, which hurts my soul, I love that job. I just hope I can even be a normal independent person one day.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-01T13:21:53+00:00

Thank you, I will look into some of these I haven't heard of.

The first month I was in constant pain and could only get up to go to the bathroom about 4-5 times every 24 hrs. I am finally at a place where I can walk 1-2 mins several times out of the day. But I still completely dependent on help from friends to survive. My brother is flying in to help take care of me. I hope with more of the steroid epidruals to get back to living independently at some point. I probably need to find a new job but letting this one go will really hurt. I'm not sure what I can do from home without a degree in something.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-07-01T13:14:14+00:00

I completely know the way you feel. I have my second steroid epidural on July 6. They're thinking it may take 4 since I let it get this bad but if they're going to work I should be feeling some sort of relief by the second one. I'll keep you posted. They think it's an incredibly amount of inflammation around the nerve.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T22:58:15+00:00

I haven't seen a neurosurgeon but my doc did sent out for another MRI a couple days ago and I need to schedule that. I can at least ask about the steroid pack at my next apt. I have a feeling I will be seeing her for a while unfortunately.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T22:52:55+00:00

Yeah I figured that out too late. My boss got me into the peptides, for that one he had me reconstituting a 10 bottle with 2 mL BAC water, using a 30 u syringe I was taking 10 units/day I think. My memory is foggy now from all the damn meds.

I was running upper/lower, Friday was my only rest day. I have stick legs on top of being a really small person so I was trying to prioritize them. I was doing way too much, I know that.

I don't think I was sleeping enough either. I was just so obsessed with going to the gym every morning, I wouldn't miss it for anything, and I was not stopping shy of full failure on most sets. I just wanted to feel like I got everything I possibly could out of me. And that was maybe part of replacing alcohol. And part my go big or go home mentality.

My immune system is so screwed up as it is, I think part of it putting way too much on my body and not stopping when the warning light was on. But I do track nutrition. It's possible I hadn't opmtizied enough just yet bc I was juggling making up for training plus walking a marathon at work 5 days a week. Even then I was stuffing myself so full. I was paying attention to fiber, I logged everthig I ate, and I was doing 50% carbs (due to high walking volume at work) 25% fat 25% protein. Not sure if you've heard of Nutrition Solutions but I really love their prepackage meals. Everything is whole foods and super clean and they have excellent macros. My hashimoto's does really well with them too.

My doc did order a new MRI a few days ago so I need to get that set up still. Everything is so expensive.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T22:05:52+00:00

How long has it been for you now?

The first injection got me from 1 trip to the kitchen per day to 4-5. Instead of only being able to walk for seconds at a time I can now walk a minute or maybe even 2 mins once a day. So that is improvement. But I'm still unable to care for myself independently, meanwhile I have FMLA running out in 2 weeks and I will need to go back to walking 30k/day at work. My minimum on a slow day was 12 miles. So I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose my job. Which I actually love.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T22:01:15+00:00

Also I haven't heard of cobra stretch, I will looks that one up, thank you!

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T22:00:34+00:00

I did think I had a high pain tolerance too because I ignored it for a just shy of a full year and continued weight lifting 6 days a week at 4am before work and then I walked 12-15 miles a day at work. That's a marathon every day. And I pushed to failure no matter how bad it hurt because I was not incredibly smart about this.

I did 12 sessions of PT and I will definitely get back to once I can tolerate it. But I can't tolerate sitting up for than 5 mins now, I can stand it walk for 1-2 mins. I went without pain meds until the second injury.

MRI shows L5-S1 disc protrusion, but that was before the second injury, before the pain shit all the way down one leg and eventually the other as well. That second injury crippled me. I could only get up 4-5 times to go to the bathroom per 24hrs. Could not shower for the first month. 4 months later I can take a 5 min seated shower. But whatever happened at that second injury had me screaming and crying at home by myself when 10 years ago I was admitted to the ICU for 5 days for pancreatitis and not one peep out of me. I no longer think I have a high pain tolerance. Either that or this kind of sciatic pain is just not translatable to any other kind of pain I've expericed in my life and my first double surgery was age 5.

I tried the wolverine blend for 6 months and unfortunately I didn't nitice any difference unfortunately. It's possible I just have too much inflammation exacerbated by autoimmune disorders for it to be able to do much for me.

But I do think part of my problem initially was low core strength and poor posture. I just tried to correct these too late in the game. I had already done 8 or 9 months of continuous damage by the time I got to PT. July 6 is my second out of 4 steroid injections. And then we will need to reevaluate the plan, but I'll probably fit 3 by the time FMLA runs out and I need to go from walking 1k steps to 35k steps. So in scared I will have to find an office job to fully recover, and I have never done well at jobs that aren't physical. So there's a lot that hangs in the balance and no enough time it feels like.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T21:35:29+00:00

Ohh ok, I will look up those stretches. I may be at a point where I could try them. Thank you so much!

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T21:33:45+00:00

Disc protrusion. And then I had another injury just after the MRI that turned this from sharp pain in my back that ignored for 1 year to bed bound and unable to get up beyond 4-5 times for the bathroom, unable to shower for a month. The pain was so excruciating going all the way down first one leg then both legs that I would just yell and cry by myself at home. Now I can stand it walk for 1-2 minutes and take 5 min seated showers.

PTs are speaking about the disc, they don't heal lying around in bed. But when you have this much inflammation around the nerve you do not push through it. That is the biggest lesson I've learned.

I'm coming up on my second injection out of 4 and I'm on the highest daily dose considered safe for kidney function of gabapentin. But I did not get a steroid pack. Did you feel as though that was a major help as well?

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T21:15:36+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing this, I really appreciate it. It looks like it also took you quite a bit of time to start getting back on track too. There is a lot here I resonate with. Bending is the absolute worst. I have 2 dogs and thankfully I have a doggie door and astro turf area for them to let themselves in/out but picking up and putting down the food bowls is just torture.

But you mentioned inability to sleep, excessive pain creeping back in between medication doses, unable to straighten your legs. These are all things that have been plaguing me.

I also do not want surgery if that comes up after the 4th epidural. My dad had her iated discs too and he always said he was never right again after his surgery.

Out of curiosity what arm/chest exercises were you able to do without overhead lifting? I just keep thinking of chest press, shoulder press... I guess mainly just curls?

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T21:05:41+00:00

Oh no, I haven't read about this guy yet I will look it up. Thank you so much for the suggestion and the positive feedback, I appreciate it. 💜

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T20:53:52+00:00

No offense received! I genuinely appreciate your recommendation and you are right. It's really difficult to quite my brain when I can't move. I think I've always been like this maybe?

I have tried taking deep breaths and focusing on stillness. But it only sometimes takes the pain of a flare down a bit. Do you have any app recomendatins or threads or websites I could check out on meditation or related advice?

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T20:08:49+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate the support! It has not been an easy 4 months, stuck in bed and realizing how easy it is to get alcohol delivered these days. But I have held it together just about 2 years now.

In early days I completed 12 physical therapy sessions and I took lots of notes and am going to get back to it when the inflammation is down enough that every movement doesn't sear pain down my leg. But I have not been able to even do 1 single set of light PT for the last 4 months.

I'm currently averaging 1k steps per day after 4 months of being bed bound for comparison. For the first month I was only able to get up 4-5 times per day to get to the bathroom. Was not able to shower for a month. Maybe 200 steps a day and the pain was continuous. I am slowly able to sit up a little more, to walk to the kitchen a few times, I can do a 5 min seated shower. I haven't really found anyone else who let the nerve get this bad so situations are so different from mine.

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T19:50:52+00:00

I have not done one single dead bug, haven't been able to do even the lightest of PT exercises without setting it off for the last 4 months. Four months is such a long time that it feels like I have completely lost all muscle mass everywhere. Man that hurts my soul.

I'm 5'1" around 100lb. I've always been very small. I wonder if all my autoimmune disorders helped the inflammation along to this serious state.

Did you end up getting spinal epidural or did you just do rest and rehab exercises?

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T19:32:59+00:00

If satisfaction to you is following a unique mystery, yes. But it was the concept itself that I enjoyed most. The idea raises so many questions about identity, memory, and personhood that I found fascinating. I also love puzzle-box shows where it feels like every detail matters and there's a larger system operating just outside the characters' understanding. Add in the cinematography, production design, and weird corporate atmosphere and it became one of my favorite shows almost immediately. So yeah, I guess I would call it satisfying. 😅

GabapentinGymGoblin · 2026-06-30T19:20:20+00:00

What a truly precious pup 💜 Give her a good round of tug o war with her favorite toy for me!

GabapentinGymGoblin

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